Had a couple of tough slam hands at the weekly IMPS game this week. On the first, you hold KQ752 AKQ4 AK98 void in 3rd seat with no one vul. It starts with P – P to you, and the first decision is what do you open. I am a firm believer in 2 suiters should almost never be opened 2C, since you will almost always have difficulty describing the hand, especially major/minor 2 suiters. But what about 3 suiters and especially this strong of 1. If you open 1S and over anyone else’s bid, jump to 3H (or reverse if jump to 3D), 1 of the red suits is almost certain to be lost, and it is hard to justify only bidding 2H/2D at your second turn on this hand. So better or worse, I decided to show strength first with 2C. This went 2H by partner (negative), 2S by me, and 3D by partner. The 3D bid intrigued me, since it should be natural, but I decided to see what partner would say over 3H first, and got a 4S bid from partner. This seems to indicate partner has a bad hand with a bunch of Diamonds, probably 2 Spades since did not get an immediate Spade raise, and less than 4 Hearts. So since we have no more than 1 quick loser in the majors, and a 9-10 card fit in Diamonds (if I read pard correctly), I bid what I wanted to play in, 6D.
Pard had about a perfect hand, 109 7 Q76532 8753, and even with the 3-0 Diamonds split, was able to make 6D on the hand, when Spades went 4-3. At the other table, 1S was passed all around and the hand made 3. Still not sure what is the best auction, but I like our result of +920 better than the +140 at the other table.
The next hand was A98 QT74 J AK963, NV vs VUL. Partner opened 2N in 1st seat (20-21/22) and it went pass on my right. 3C was puppet stayman and partner bid 3N, no 4 or 5 card major. I now made a very lazy bid, I bid 6C, figuring since partner had 7+ cards in the minors, I should get some support. Partner put down the proper hand for lazy bids like this, KQ6 AK2 AKQT7 74. Since Clubs were not 3-3, I had found the only slam that managed to have 0 play.
As I said later, there is no rush on this hand, if I just bid 4C over 3N, I will find out if partner has support or not. If he does, I continue on to 6C as before, but if he does not, and bids 4N as here, then I can raise that to 6N and play in a reasonable contract. When not sure of the strain and/or level, involve partner in the discussion, got to always remember that. Here I ‘Assumed’ I knew the strain and level, when there was a possibility I was wrong, and I had a method of finding out. And it is good to see lazy bids punished on occasion, it is the only thing that teaches you lessons. If partner put down a 4333 hand I would have been overjoyed at my brilliance, and gone away happy. Probably would not stop and think about what could have gone wrong, since I obviously did not at the time.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Hand Analysis Fun
A few months ago, I did a hand analysis for a local game to see how it would work. Generated 32 hands, looked at them and did an analysis page for each, then worked with a local club to set up a game and see how it went. Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy the analysis, and the people responsible for the newcomers at the games thanked me and said the newcomers enjoyed it.
So I decided to do it again and it will run this weekend. It is actually fun, to try and guess what is going to happen on a board for the various times it is played. What will be a common score, what pitfalls are in the hand, and perhaps what funny things can happen. If you get a chance, I do recommend it for your local games, it does add something different to the event and helps out new players. Besides, your ego can take the hit when an expert comes up and tells you what they did different to destroy your analysis :)
Will post next week how far off I was in some of the boards once the game is complete.
So I decided to do it again and it will run this weekend. It is actually fun, to try and guess what is going to happen on a board for the various times it is played. What will be a common score, what pitfalls are in the hand, and perhaps what funny things can happen. If you get a chance, I do recommend it for your local games, it does add something different to the event and helps out new players. Besides, your ego can take the hit when an expert comes up and tells you what they did different to destroy your analysis :)
Will post next week how far off I was in some of the boards once the game is complete.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Ya Gotta be Flexible
Had a hand a couple of days ago that has bugged me since then, mainly because I mostly got the hand right, but when the crucial moment came, I did not change my original game plan to accomodate the extra chance I got, and thus turned a potential large swing my way into a small loss.
Playing IMPS, I picked up K32 KQ765 Q6 A54, ALL VUL and heard it go Pass, Pass to me. We play weak NT's and though I usually do not like to open 1N with a decent 5 card major, I decided to break my own rule and do it this time, primarily due to the values outside and the flatness of the hand. This went Double on my left (mainly penalties), Pass by partner (forcing a redouble if RHO passes, either to play or starting a 1 suited run-out) and Pass on my right. This is why I do not like to open 1N on these hands, I now have a guess coming, where is it right to play this hand. Anyways, right or wrong, I decided that since I broke rules once by opening 1N, let's go all out and I now bid 2H, rather than redouble like I was asked. Decided that 1N redoubled might be a silly place to play this, and if partner bid a suit that got doubled, A I had set him up to play a hand in what might be a silly place, and B I would not know if Hearts or his suit would be correct. At least this way, all partner had to do was watch me butcher the hand, not get beat up himself :)
This now went Double on my left (unsure what that was, had my own ideas), all Pass. The opening lead was the A of Diamonds (Even number, usually with the K) and this dummy hit. T65 JT8 J985 K86, probably better than I deserved. I played low on the Diamond, a discouraging Diamond came from RHO, and LHO shifted to a small Club, small, Q, A by me. So what is going on, LHO has to have almost everything left on the hand, so I have to assume that the double of 2H was TO and RHO converted it. Since this is largely unexplored, I did not ask the opps since I was not sure I would get a decent answer, and I might alert them to each other's problems by asking. (Maybe I should ask more, but some of the answers tend to stop me asking questions) So if RHO made a penalty pass with almost no values, I can tentatively assign hm 4-5 hearts and likely not much more than the Q of Clubs and 1 of the missing Spade honours, probably not the A. That leaves LHO with something like AQxx - AKTx JTxxx or something close to that, not what I want to see as this hand may not play too well.
Anyways, make sure the carnage is not too large, I exited with the Q of Diamonds to the K on my left, won the J of Clubs return with the K, and cashed the J of Diamonds pitching my loosing Club as all followed. Now I started a strip play (always good practice) by ruffing the Club to my hand, both following (there goes hand type 1, RHO had 3 Clubs, so what is going on) and decided to exit a Heart. LHO won the A of Hearts and now played the 10 of Diamonds, RHO pitching a Space.
My original plan had been to strip the minors, pull 2 trumps, and try to end play LHO in Spades, assuming he had short Hearts and the AQJ of Spades, a little far-fetched, but at least it got me to 8 tricks on this hand. The problem now was that did not make a lot of sense. Would RHO have really passed with 3433 and only the Q of Clubs?
The point of this whole hand came now. I was so stuck to my original plan that I didn't ping to the fact that I had actually succeeded in end-playing LHO. I ruffed the Diamond, played a Heart to Board on which LHO pitched a Spade as expected, and played a Spade, but RHO put up an intermediate Spade, and I wound up loosing the 3 Spade tricks for down 1. Flexibility and making the hand was simple, pitch a small Spade on the 10 of Diamonds, and LHO is forced into leading away from the A of Spades or giving me a ruff and sluff, same difference. That was just a very sloppy play that wound up sitting in the back of my head for a couple of days now until I wrote this. And those are the kind of hands that just haunt you, where you had done most things right, and were on the verge of a triumph, before falling into the mud on your face at the crucial moment.
I guess last point is the pass of 2H doubled. I do think that is too close when playing IMPS. Rho turned out to have Jxx 9xxx xxx Qxx. You are not beating this hand a lot, and 2S is not going to get doubled on this hand, especially after 2H. And if I had woken up in time, this hand is not that hard to make with any kind of reasonable technique. It turns out that LHO is going to be in a lot of trouble on this hand if you make any kind of attempt at keeping RHO off lead. But when you let the opponents off the hook with bad plays like I made here, you never learn lessons, either way.
Addendum: Thinking again about the hand I realized that on the actual defence I could have and think I should have, made it, RHO had the opportunity for a very nice defensive play that gives me no chance to make it. If RHO ruffs the 10 of Diamonds when it is played rather than pitching a Spade, I have no counter. Over ruffing lands me where I was on the actual hand when I ruffed it, and pitching a Spade allows RHO to return a Spade for the 2 Spade tricks required to beat me.
Playing IMPS, I picked up K32 KQ765 Q6 A54, ALL VUL and heard it go Pass, Pass to me. We play weak NT's and though I usually do not like to open 1N with a decent 5 card major, I decided to break my own rule and do it this time, primarily due to the values outside and the flatness of the hand. This went Double on my left (mainly penalties), Pass by partner (forcing a redouble if RHO passes, either to play or starting a 1 suited run-out) and Pass on my right. This is why I do not like to open 1N on these hands, I now have a guess coming, where is it right to play this hand. Anyways, right or wrong, I decided that since I broke rules once by opening 1N, let's go all out and I now bid 2H, rather than redouble like I was asked. Decided that 1N redoubled might be a silly place to play this, and if partner bid a suit that got doubled, A I had set him up to play a hand in what might be a silly place, and B I would not know if Hearts or his suit would be correct. At least this way, all partner had to do was watch me butcher the hand, not get beat up himself :)
This now went Double on my left (unsure what that was, had my own ideas), all Pass. The opening lead was the A of Diamonds (Even number, usually with the K) and this dummy hit. T65 JT8 J985 K86, probably better than I deserved. I played low on the Diamond, a discouraging Diamond came from RHO, and LHO shifted to a small Club, small, Q, A by me. So what is going on, LHO has to have almost everything left on the hand, so I have to assume that the double of 2H was TO and RHO converted it. Since this is largely unexplored, I did not ask the opps since I was not sure I would get a decent answer, and I might alert them to each other's problems by asking. (Maybe I should ask more, but some of the answers tend to stop me asking questions) So if RHO made a penalty pass with almost no values, I can tentatively assign hm 4-5 hearts and likely not much more than the Q of Clubs and 1 of the missing Spade honours, probably not the A. That leaves LHO with something like AQxx - AKTx JTxxx or something close to that, not what I want to see as this hand may not play too well.
Anyways, make sure the carnage is not too large, I exited with the Q of Diamonds to the K on my left, won the J of Clubs return with the K, and cashed the J of Diamonds pitching my loosing Club as all followed. Now I started a strip play (always good practice) by ruffing the Club to my hand, both following (there goes hand type 1, RHO had 3 Clubs, so what is going on) and decided to exit a Heart. LHO won the A of Hearts and now played the 10 of Diamonds, RHO pitching a Space.
My original plan had been to strip the minors, pull 2 trumps, and try to end play LHO in Spades, assuming he had short Hearts and the AQJ of Spades, a little far-fetched, but at least it got me to 8 tricks on this hand. The problem now was that did not make a lot of sense. Would RHO have really passed with 3433 and only the Q of Clubs?
The point of this whole hand came now. I was so stuck to my original plan that I didn't ping to the fact that I had actually succeeded in end-playing LHO. I ruffed the Diamond, played a Heart to Board on which LHO pitched a Spade as expected, and played a Spade, but RHO put up an intermediate Spade, and I wound up loosing the 3 Spade tricks for down 1. Flexibility and making the hand was simple, pitch a small Spade on the 10 of Diamonds, and LHO is forced into leading away from the A of Spades or giving me a ruff and sluff, same difference. That was just a very sloppy play that wound up sitting in the back of my head for a couple of days now until I wrote this. And those are the kind of hands that just haunt you, where you had done most things right, and were on the verge of a triumph, before falling into the mud on your face at the crucial moment.
I guess last point is the pass of 2H doubled. I do think that is too close when playing IMPS. Rho turned out to have Jxx 9xxx xxx Qxx. You are not beating this hand a lot, and 2S is not going to get doubled on this hand, especially after 2H. And if I had woken up in time, this hand is not that hard to make with any kind of reasonable technique. It turns out that LHO is going to be in a lot of trouble on this hand if you make any kind of attempt at keeping RHO off lead. But when you let the opponents off the hook with bad plays like I made here, you never learn lessons, either way.
Addendum: Thinking again about the hand I realized that on the actual defence I could have and think I should have, made it, RHO had the opportunity for a very nice defensive play that gives me no chance to make it. If RHO ruffs the 10 of Diamonds when it is played rather than pitching a Spade, I have no counter. Over ruffing lands me where I was on the actual hand when I ruffed it, and pitching a Spade allows RHO to return a Spade for the 2 Spade tricks required to beat me.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Are you not supposed to be Aggressive Playing Board a Match?
Playing BAM with a pickup partner last night, had a couple of hands that just confused me. BAM is MP's on steroids, you do everything for that ultimate score, and +200 on defence is the ultimate. So these hands really confused me.
First hand, you pick up KT A64 QJ2 QT984 Vul vs Not, and hear it go 1C (Roman, 11-15 unbalanced or 16+) on your right. You decide to pass, not something I personally like, always strive to bid over a 2 way 1C opener, they have no clue what is happening yet. It now goes 1D neg on your left, 2H by partner, 3S on your right. I am not sure what is going on here, but you have an opening bid and support, I think you have to make some move. It turns out any move by you will work, double and 3S goes down 3, 4H makes, anything. But passing is 1 way to lose the board. Partner had Q982 KQJ83 A973 void. A good 2H bid, but partner is a passed hand and came into a live auction Vul vs Not. You lose the board when they doubled 3S at the other table and only beat it 2 tricks, but +300 beats +150.
Second hand, you hold A32 JT5 85 KQT98 NV vs Vul and pass in first seat. It goes 1D (can be short) on your left, pass, 1H Neg on your right. You now bid 2C (I like that bid) and it goes P, P, 2D on your right. This goes to partner who doubles it, P back to you, now what? What does partner have, he passed 1D, passed your 2C, and now doubled 2D. I think that has to be penalty, since partner could have bid 3C if wanted to play there. But this hand bid 3C which went double on his left, ending the auction. This dummy came down KJ96 K643 KQ96 5, about what partner should probably have. The opening lead is the 5 of Spades, J, Q, A. It now goes 5 Diamonds, 2, Q, 4. Then 5 of Clubs, 4, 8, 2. Declarer plays the Q of Clubs, 3, 3 Hearts, J Clubs. So it looks like Clubs are 5521 around the table, probably not good. Declarer now played 9 Clubs, 6 6 Diamonds, 4 of Spades, confirming the Clubs. I think he should now play a Diamond, but instead played the 2 of Spades and was overjoyed to see this get ruffed with the 7 of Clubs. It now went 3 Diamonds to the K, 7, 8 (?), so declarer played the K of spades from dummy, ruffed by the A of Clubs. Back came the A of Diamonds in this comedy of errors, which RHO followed to and declarer ruffed with the 10 of Clubs. The position is now the 9 Spades and K64 of Hearts on board and the K Clubs and JT5 of Hearts in hand, and declarer has lost 2 tricks. So declarer now played the J of Hearts out of hand and when LHO played low, let it ride(?), playing the opener for a full 9 or 10 count. This got punished as it should, win the Q on his right, 10 of Spades ruffed with last trump while LHO pitched a Heart, and claim down 1 for the defence with the A of Hearts and J of Diamonds. 2D doubled was down several, and on this defence, 3C was going to make, instead we lost the board again.
Last 1 you hold A6 AJ JT864 K982 and hear it go P, P, 1H (4 card major) by RHO. You decide to overcall 2D and this goes P, 2S by partner, P on your right. To me this looks like a good place to play this, but you decide to show a real hand and now bid 2N :) Partner raises this to 3N and it goes all pass. The opening lead is the 7 of Hearts which goes 5, 10, J. You play a Diamond to the Q and it surprisingly goes A on your right. RHO now returns the 3 of Clubs (?). You are missing 16 points on this hand, and LHO never took a call. You need 1 Club trick to go with the other tricks to get to 9, so I believe the correct play here is the K, assuming RHO has a real opener, since LHO looks to have some Hearts and did not raise. You also do now want LHO to switch back to Hearts, since you have gotten a reprieve. If you rise on the K of Clubs, it holds, and with the Spade hook on, 3N makes in an ugly fashion. Declarer actually played low, LHO won the Q, switched back to a Heart to clear that suit. Now declarer ran all the Diamonds, cashed A and out a Spade, and watched the opps claim down 2 for another lost board.
The only hand we won was another error by this hand on another tough declarer play problem. You hold A6 void K872 AKQJ982, all vul and open 1C in first seat. This goes pass, 1H by partner, pass on your right, so you decide to bid 2D to set up a force. This goes 2H by partner, so you end the auction with 3N. The opening lead is the 2 of Spades and this dummy tracks. T954 AQ843 JT9 4. You decide to play low from dummy (agree, put max pressure on the opps to make the correct play, playing low on these holdings works an amazing amount of the time) and RHO plays the K of Spades, which you win with the A. Personally, I think a second Spade is now the correct play, since playing Clubs will squeeze dummy. But the declarer here led a low Diamond from his hand, setting up what looked like 4 tricks for the defence. But not to be outdone, LHO won the A of Diamonds (?), another strange looking play by this person, and switched to the 2 of Hearts, yet 1 more strange play. So declarer won the A pitching a Spade, and remembering that he was playing BAM, played the J of Diamonds with his unexpected board entry and let it ride, LHO showing out. Another Diamond and it was easy to wrap up 12 tricks for an easy win on the board when the declarer at the other table did not find that play.
All in all it was a tough day, since admittedly, the hands were very tough and all players were being aggresive. But I believe it was yet another example of not paying attention to the opponents bids and plays and reconstructing their hands while declaring the hand.
Just wanted to add after that I think I was too negative with this post. I really was impressed with how GOOD the other players on the other team played. I think it was our team not playing that well and not thinking clear. I would not want to play those guys too often with a regular group that I play with.
First hand, you pick up KT A64 QJ2 QT984 Vul vs Not, and hear it go 1C (Roman, 11-15 unbalanced or 16+) on your right. You decide to pass, not something I personally like, always strive to bid over a 2 way 1C opener, they have no clue what is happening yet. It now goes 1D neg on your left, 2H by partner, 3S on your right. I am not sure what is going on here, but you have an opening bid and support, I think you have to make some move. It turns out any move by you will work, double and 3S goes down 3, 4H makes, anything. But passing is 1 way to lose the board. Partner had Q982 KQJ83 A973 void. A good 2H bid, but partner is a passed hand and came into a live auction Vul vs Not. You lose the board when they doubled 3S at the other table and only beat it 2 tricks, but +300 beats +150.
Second hand, you hold A32 JT5 85 KQT98 NV vs Vul and pass in first seat. It goes 1D (can be short) on your left, pass, 1H Neg on your right. You now bid 2C (I like that bid) and it goes P, P, 2D on your right. This goes to partner who doubles it, P back to you, now what? What does partner have, he passed 1D, passed your 2C, and now doubled 2D. I think that has to be penalty, since partner could have bid 3C if wanted to play there. But this hand bid 3C which went double on his left, ending the auction. This dummy came down KJ96 K643 KQ96 5, about what partner should probably have. The opening lead is the 5 of Spades, J, Q, A. It now goes 5 Diamonds, 2, Q, 4. Then 5 of Clubs, 4, 8, 2. Declarer plays the Q of Clubs, 3, 3 Hearts, J Clubs. So it looks like Clubs are 5521 around the table, probably not good. Declarer now played 9 Clubs, 6 6 Diamonds, 4 of Spades, confirming the Clubs. I think he should now play a Diamond, but instead played the 2 of Spades and was overjoyed to see this get ruffed with the 7 of Clubs. It now went 3 Diamonds to the K, 7, 8 (?), so declarer played the K of spades from dummy, ruffed by the A of Clubs. Back came the A of Diamonds in this comedy of errors, which RHO followed to and declarer ruffed with the 10 of Clubs. The position is now the 9 Spades and K64 of Hearts on board and the K Clubs and JT5 of Hearts in hand, and declarer has lost 2 tricks. So declarer now played the J of Hearts out of hand and when LHO played low, let it ride(?), playing the opener for a full 9 or 10 count. This got punished as it should, win the Q on his right, 10 of Spades ruffed with last trump while LHO pitched a Heart, and claim down 1 for the defence with the A of Hearts and J of Diamonds. 2D doubled was down several, and on this defence, 3C was going to make, instead we lost the board again.
Last 1 you hold A6 AJ JT864 K982 and hear it go P, P, 1H (4 card major) by RHO. You decide to overcall 2D and this goes P, 2S by partner, P on your right. To me this looks like a good place to play this, but you decide to show a real hand and now bid 2N :) Partner raises this to 3N and it goes all pass. The opening lead is the 7 of Hearts which goes 5, 10, J. You play a Diamond to the Q and it surprisingly goes A on your right. RHO now returns the 3 of Clubs (?). You are missing 16 points on this hand, and LHO never took a call. You need 1 Club trick to go with the other tricks to get to 9, so I believe the correct play here is the K, assuming RHO has a real opener, since LHO looks to have some Hearts and did not raise. You also do now want LHO to switch back to Hearts, since you have gotten a reprieve. If you rise on the K of Clubs, it holds, and with the Spade hook on, 3N makes in an ugly fashion. Declarer actually played low, LHO won the Q, switched back to a Heart to clear that suit. Now declarer ran all the Diamonds, cashed A and out a Spade, and watched the opps claim down 2 for another lost board.
The only hand we won was another error by this hand on another tough declarer play problem. You hold A6 void K872 AKQJ982, all vul and open 1C in first seat. This goes pass, 1H by partner, pass on your right, so you decide to bid 2D to set up a force. This goes 2H by partner, so you end the auction with 3N. The opening lead is the 2 of Spades and this dummy tracks. T954 AQ843 JT9 4. You decide to play low from dummy (agree, put max pressure on the opps to make the correct play, playing low on these holdings works an amazing amount of the time) and RHO plays the K of Spades, which you win with the A. Personally, I think a second Spade is now the correct play, since playing Clubs will squeeze dummy. But the declarer here led a low Diamond from his hand, setting up what looked like 4 tricks for the defence. But not to be outdone, LHO won the A of Diamonds (?), another strange looking play by this person, and switched to the 2 of Hearts, yet 1 more strange play. So declarer won the A pitching a Spade, and remembering that he was playing BAM, played the J of Diamonds with his unexpected board entry and let it ride, LHO showing out. Another Diamond and it was easy to wrap up 12 tricks for an easy win on the board when the declarer at the other table did not find that play.
All in all it was a tough day, since admittedly, the hands were very tough and all players were being aggresive. But I believe it was yet another example of not paying attention to the opponents bids and plays and reconstructing their hands while declaring the hand.
Just wanted to add after that I think I was too negative with this post. I really was impressed with how GOOD the other players on the other team played. I think it was our team not playing that well and not thinking clear. I would not want to play those guys too often with a regular group that I play with.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
What to Bid
Playing IMPS in a practice match, you pick up Ax Ax xxx AKJTxx Vul vs Not and hear it go 2H* on your left, P P to you. 2H is a weak 2 suiter with Hearts and another unknown 5 card suit.
I think the main options on this hand are Double, 3C, and 2 or 3NT. I could not bid 4C since that was leaping Michaels and would show a strong 2 suiter in Spades and Clubs. The first 2 bids I rejected since Double I just thought would get me into trouble in Spades. If partner bid any number of Spades, I would have to bypass 3N to bid Clubs, or decide if I was going to bid over 4S, knowing my hand is going to be a disappointment to partner. And 3C would be passed out on many hands where I could make game. The Clubs missing rated to be on me right, since I assumed that the second suit for the 2H bidder was most likely Spades or Diamonds. 2C might very well be right, and probably would be if we were best suited for 5 or even 6 Clubs, but that is about the only time it would be right, and a lot of hands where we can make 5C are going to be passed out in 3C.
This left the 2N and 3N choices. I had a source of tricks and stoppers in 2/3 of the remaining suits, including the primary known suit, so lots of upside on the hand. But the 3 little Diamonds are a large worry, since it was just as likely for the 2H opener to have either of those 2 suits. If Spades, I had little worry, since partner would rate to have Diamonds now. If it was Diamonds, I might not have a stopper in that suit at all. The big questions is what does justice to your hand. You are worth 7 1/2 playing tricks, the A of Diamonds or a stopper and 1 other card will give you at least some play for 9 tricks. So does 2N cover it, or do you have to bid 3N?
The plus for 2N is that partner can show a suit over it, but will you be able to judge where to play the hand when it goes 2H P P 2N P 3S P ?, you have essentially delayed your decision between 3N and 4C for 1 round. The big advantage here is that bidding 4C after 2N describes your hand, it just takes you past 3N :)
The plus for 3N is it makes for a blind lead that may allow you to make a hand you are not entitled to. The down side, it may be a hopeless wrong contract.
At the table I finally decided on 3N. Partner put down not the hoped for dummy with KJxxx KQx x xxxx after the opening Diamond lead. The opps quickly cashed 5 Diamonds winners and exited a Heart. This looked pretty bleak since it appeared 6C was odds on (not sure how you get there) whereas 3N was down 1 on the opening lead. Except when a Club was led from dummy, RHO showed out, LHO was 0553, meaning 6C had 2 losers. Of course this also meant I was down 1 more trick, but that was mostly OK. I thought the only makeable contract was now 5C, kind of hard to get to.
Turns out the other table got to 4S, and made it. Not sure how that worked, and did not ask. Seems like there are only 8, maybe 9 tricks there, with the foul splits. But that is a discussion for another day. And I still think I would bid 3N given another chance, although that 2N-4C auction would sure work well on this hand :)
I think the main options on this hand are Double, 3C, and 2 or 3NT. I could not bid 4C since that was leaping Michaels and would show a strong 2 suiter in Spades and Clubs. The first 2 bids I rejected since Double I just thought would get me into trouble in Spades. If partner bid any number of Spades, I would have to bypass 3N to bid Clubs, or decide if I was going to bid over 4S, knowing my hand is going to be a disappointment to partner. And 3C would be passed out on many hands where I could make game. The Clubs missing rated to be on me right, since I assumed that the second suit for the 2H bidder was most likely Spades or Diamonds. 2C might very well be right, and probably would be if we were best suited for 5 or even 6 Clubs, but that is about the only time it would be right, and a lot of hands where we can make 5C are going to be passed out in 3C.
This left the 2N and 3N choices. I had a source of tricks and stoppers in 2/3 of the remaining suits, including the primary known suit, so lots of upside on the hand. But the 3 little Diamonds are a large worry, since it was just as likely for the 2H opener to have either of those 2 suits. If Spades, I had little worry, since partner would rate to have Diamonds now. If it was Diamonds, I might not have a stopper in that suit at all. The big questions is what does justice to your hand. You are worth 7 1/2 playing tricks, the A of Diamonds or a stopper and 1 other card will give you at least some play for 9 tricks. So does 2N cover it, or do you have to bid 3N?
The plus for 2N is that partner can show a suit over it, but will you be able to judge where to play the hand when it goes 2H P P 2N P 3S P ?, you have essentially delayed your decision between 3N and 4C for 1 round. The big advantage here is that bidding 4C after 2N describes your hand, it just takes you past 3N :)
The plus for 3N is it makes for a blind lead that may allow you to make a hand you are not entitled to. The down side, it may be a hopeless wrong contract.
At the table I finally decided on 3N. Partner put down not the hoped for dummy with KJxxx KQx x xxxx after the opening Diamond lead. The opps quickly cashed 5 Diamonds winners and exited a Heart. This looked pretty bleak since it appeared 6C was odds on (not sure how you get there) whereas 3N was down 1 on the opening lead. Except when a Club was led from dummy, RHO showed out, LHO was 0553, meaning 6C had 2 losers. Of course this also meant I was down 1 more trick, but that was mostly OK. I thought the only makeable contract was now 5C, kind of hard to get to.
Turns out the other table got to 4S, and made it. Not sure how that worked, and did not ask. Seems like there are only 8, maybe 9 tricks there, with the foul splits. But that is a discussion for another day. And I still think I would bid 3N given another chance, although that 2N-4C auction would sure work well on this hand :)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
High Level Shenanigans
Playing IMPS at the local club game, you pick up K75 KQ K82 A9842 with all vulnerable. Partner open 1S, you bid 2C GF, and partner now jumps to 4D, supposedly a splinter in support of Clubs, which RHO doubles.
Since you do note really have any first round controls, even though your hand is awfully good, you pass to see what partner will do here. Partner bids 4H and RHO passes, what now?
At the table, the person holding this hand bid 4N, Key Card in Clubs, over which partner bid 7C (a lot) and RHO now wandered in with 7D. This was doubled, although pass seems like a very workable alternative with all the stuff in the majors, and when dummy put down xxxx xx Qxxx xxx, declarer went for 1400 with his x xxxxx AJxxxx x hand to pick up 2 Imps when they played in 6S at the other table.
The discussion after centered around how to get to 7S in an intelligent manner on this auction once the opps decide to save in 7D. 7C is obviously the first choice of where to play the grand, but you were not allowed to play there. How do you find out partner has the very good Spades required to play in 7S, with the probably bad split.
Giving it to a local expert, he said he would have bid 4S over 4H. This almost has to be forcing, since you passed the double of 4D and then bid it over another cue bid. It turns out partner also would have bid 7C over that bid, but now it is a lot easier for you to pass over 7D and a LOT easier for partner to bid 7S.
Partners hand was AQJT4 AJ97 void KQJT, and with Spades no worse than 4-1, both black grands will make.
Since you do note really have any first round controls, even though your hand is awfully good, you pass to see what partner will do here. Partner bids 4H and RHO passes, what now?
At the table, the person holding this hand bid 4N, Key Card in Clubs, over which partner bid 7C (a lot) and RHO now wandered in with 7D. This was doubled, although pass seems like a very workable alternative with all the stuff in the majors, and when dummy put down xxxx xx Qxxx xxx, declarer went for 1400 with his x xxxxx AJxxxx x hand to pick up 2 Imps when they played in 6S at the other table.
The discussion after centered around how to get to 7S in an intelligent manner on this auction once the opps decide to save in 7D. 7C is obviously the first choice of where to play the grand, but you were not allowed to play there. How do you find out partner has the very good Spades required to play in 7S, with the probably bad split.
Giving it to a local expert, he said he would have bid 4S over 4H. This almost has to be forcing, since you passed the double of 4D and then bid it over another cue bid. It turns out partner also would have bid 7C over that bid, but now it is a lot easier for you to pass over 7D and a LOT easier for partner to bid 7S.
Partners hand was AQJT4 AJ97 void KQJT, and with Spades no worse than 4-1, both black grands will make.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Interesting 3N
Playing IMPS at our local game, I picked up this hand, AK74 AK3 95 AQT6, all vul. I opened 2N and partner bid 3C, Puppet Stayman, I bid 3D showing a 4 card major and partner bid 3N, ending the auction.
The opening lead was the 2 of Spades and this dummy hit, J6 754 AQ843 852. The opps were playing attitude leads, so I hopefully put up the J of Spades, but RHO played the Q, attitude huh? :) Since I did not want a Heart shift, and had a bunch of work to do, I won the A at trick 1 and led the 9 of Diamonds, planning to duck it. LHO put the 10 on this, but the original plan was still in force so I played low from dummy, the only possible way to set the Diamonds up. RHO overtook the Diamond with the J (?) to play the 9 of Spades, not a card I liked to see. Now was as good a time as any to try to cut some of their communications so I ducked this, and LHO overtook it with the 10 (interesting spots) and returned a small Spade (?). I pitched a Heart from board and RHO played the 8 of Spades, so I won the King. I now had an unexpected 3rd Spade, and might not need the Diamonds if something good happened in Clubs. Plus it was starting to look like LHO had made a very strange lead in Spades.
Wanting to find out about the Clubs, I led the 10 of Clubs out of my hand. I had the timing to save the Diamond decision now, and wanted to have some options if that suit did not pan out. LHO went into a serious tank over the 10 of Clubs, but finally played low, and RHO won the K. So I was pretty sure that LHO had the J and a few Clubs, made even more certain when RHO led the 6 of Spades (!) to my good 7, and LHO pitched a Heart. Why had he led a 3 card Spade suit, looked like he was probably 3334 or something like that, which gave me hope on this hand, even if the Diamond K was offside now.
I cashed the A and Q of Clubs from my hand, and sure enough the J did not appear, and RHO pitched a Heart, from his presumed 4 card holding. It certainly looked like I was right about the hand, which left LHO with 2 Hearts, 2 Diamond, and the J of Clubs, and RHO with 3 Hearts and 2 Diamonds. At this point, it didn't matter who had the K of Diamonds, easy matter to play 3 rounds of Hearts and claim when RHO was forced to win the 3rd Heart.
Turns out this was an easy hand with any kind of technique (duck an initial Diamond) since KTx were onside in LHO's hand and the K of Clubs was onside. But I thought it was still a neat technical hand for counting and extrapolating the opps hands to make it this way. And next time, the K of Diamonds will be in RHO's hand and this was the only way to make it
The opening lead was the 2 of Spades and this dummy hit, J6 754 AQ843 852. The opps were playing attitude leads, so I hopefully put up the J of Spades, but RHO played the Q, attitude huh? :) Since I did not want a Heart shift, and had a bunch of work to do, I won the A at trick 1 and led the 9 of Diamonds, planning to duck it. LHO put the 10 on this, but the original plan was still in force so I played low from dummy, the only possible way to set the Diamonds up. RHO overtook the Diamond with the J (?) to play the 9 of Spades, not a card I liked to see. Now was as good a time as any to try to cut some of their communications so I ducked this, and LHO overtook it with the 10 (interesting spots) and returned a small Spade (?). I pitched a Heart from board and RHO played the 8 of Spades, so I won the King. I now had an unexpected 3rd Spade, and might not need the Diamonds if something good happened in Clubs. Plus it was starting to look like LHO had made a very strange lead in Spades.
Wanting to find out about the Clubs, I led the 10 of Clubs out of my hand. I had the timing to save the Diamond decision now, and wanted to have some options if that suit did not pan out. LHO went into a serious tank over the 10 of Clubs, but finally played low, and RHO won the K. So I was pretty sure that LHO had the J and a few Clubs, made even more certain when RHO led the 6 of Spades (!) to my good 7, and LHO pitched a Heart. Why had he led a 3 card Spade suit, looked like he was probably 3334 or something like that, which gave me hope on this hand, even if the Diamond K was offside now.
I cashed the A and Q of Clubs from my hand, and sure enough the J did not appear, and RHO pitched a Heart, from his presumed 4 card holding. It certainly looked like I was right about the hand, which left LHO with 2 Hearts, 2 Diamond, and the J of Clubs, and RHO with 3 Hearts and 2 Diamonds. At this point, it didn't matter who had the K of Diamonds, easy matter to play 3 rounds of Hearts and claim when RHO was forced to win the 3rd Heart.
Turns out this was an easy hand with any kind of technique (duck an initial Diamond) since KTx were onside in LHO's hand and the K of Clubs was onside. But I thought it was still a neat technical hand for counting and extrapolating the opps hands to make it this way. And next time, the K of Diamonds will be in RHO's hand and this was the only way to make it
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